Increasing QB diversity, NFL wins vs. MLB to land Kyler Murray

Former Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray, who was drafted by the Oakland A's with the ninth pick in the amateur baseball draft, has decided to forgo baseball and dedicate himself to football.

Former Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray, who was drafted by the Oakland A's with the ninth pick in the amateur baseball draft, has decided to forgo baseball and dedicate himself to football. (Sue Ogrocki / AP)

Every two-sport athlete’s case has unique elements, but the NFL scored a trendy victory over Major League Baseball on Monday when 2018 Heisman Trophy winner and Oakland A’s first-round draftee Kyler Murray announced he will pursue a career in football rather than baseball.

The NFL gets an explosive athlete who’s already nationally known to sports fans.

And, widening the NFL path to others like him, the 5-foot-10 Murray stands to become the shortest quarterback drafted in the league’s first round since the NFL draft began in 1967 (per ESPN).

MLB loses out on a center fielder who likened himself to A’s Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson and inspired Oakland to sign for him close to $5 million after investing a draft pick worth as much as $20 million to $25 million per some teams’ metrics.

Murray’s decision was felt by two former San Diegans who are part of Oakland’s braintrust in Billy Beane and Grady Fuson, who oddly enough both played quarterback and baseball for Mt. Carmel and Kearny high schools, respectively.

“We gave it a shot,” Fuson said Monday from Oakland’s organizational meetings in Arizona.

Murray would’ve been an electrifying baseball player, had he lived up to Oakland’s scouting projections.

Fuson said the righty has rare bat speed, and foot speed that’s “plus-plus.”

Though less advanced, his pitch recognition, swing and power belied his sparse baseball workload of the past three years, when college-football training dominated his sports calendar.

A belief that Murray wouldn’t evolve into a first-round NFL draftee influenced Oakland’s decision to draft him No. 9 overall last June, said Fuson, while knowing that if he opted for the NFL after signing, the A’s wouldn’t recoup a compensatory draft pick.

NFL draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah of the NFL Network, reached Monday, said that as of last June he wouldn’t have projected Murray to become a first-round draftee.

“Nope — nothing to go on,” he said.

Murray had sat behind Oklahoma starter Baker Mayfield in 2017 and had sat out the 2016 season after transferring from Texas A&M, for which he had appeared in eight games, starting three, as a freshman in 2015.

However, Murray quickly became a devastating pass-run playmaker in coach Lincoln Riley’s Sooners offense, much as Mayfield had after the former Texas Tech walk-on transferred to Oklahoma.

In 14 games, he passed for 4,361 yards and 42 touchdowns with seven interceptions and also rushed for 1,001 yards with a 7.1 per-carry average.

Football trends pay off

The broad development here is that various trends have expanded the pool of NFL quarterback candidates to include more of the mobile athletes who don’t have prototypical height.

Shorter quarterbacks Russell Wilson and Mayfield paved the way for Murray to gain the leverage of NFL first-round status.

Wilson, in my view, was a better NFL prospect than Murray but lasted until the third round of the 2012 draft.

He became a top-10 NFL quarterback who teamed up with great Seahawks defenses to lead Seattle to consecutive Super Bowls.

That Wilson — measured at 5-10½ and 204 pounds at the NFL Scouting Combine — has made all 112 starts in seven seasons punctures the belief that a hybrid quarterback can’t avoid serious injury.

The 6-foot-½ Mayfield went first overall in last year’s draft to the Browns, and led the team’s midseason turnaround.

Wilson played 50 college games including a full season in Wisconsin’s pro-style offense. Not only did he have 21 college games on Murray, the latter has a narrow frame and played at just 190 pounds.

The way football is being played and officiated, too, is benefiting quarterbacks whose lone subpar trait may be height. Oklahoma’s offense under Riley features “run-pass-option” plays that capitalize on a quarterback’s agility and mental processing, while opening throwing lanes over the line’s interior.

“The shotgun, movement of the pocket, quarterback run game and an emphasis on timing and anticipation have provide the ideal environment for productive quarterback play for shorter prospects,” said ESPN’s Tom Luginbill, a former Palomar College quarterback, in a favorable projection of Murray entering college.

“Keep in mind,” Luginbill added, “when you have knowledge of where to go with the ball pre-snap and are able to quickly process post-snap to get the ball out, it doesn’t matter how tall you are.”

Other factors

By becoming a projected first-round draftee, Murray tilted the economics his way, no small factor in a sport that brings far greater risk of head trauma.

He stands to get a four-year, guaranteed contract that doubles or triples what the A’s pledged him. (Fuson, who is special assistant to A’s General Manager David Forst, said details were being discussed but multiple reports said Murray will return nearly $1.29 million of the $1.5 million bonus he already received, and will not collect the remaining $3.16 million that he was due to be paid next month.)

The competitive rewards come sooner in football, too.

Instead of playing this summer in Stockton for Oakland’s Class A club in the Cal League, in front of 1,000 fans, Murray will be training with his NFL team and figures to play as a rookie. The A’s knew all along that if Murray could boost his NFL stock, his passion for the sport would become more of a factor.

“For some of us,” said Fuson, “we always felt that his passion was football, so even if he went in the second or third round and still elected to play baseball, he’s playing his No. 2 passion.”

Baseball’s perspective

Details vary, but under baseball’s previous labor pacts that had fewer restrictions on draft spending, clubs were more empowered to dangle large sums to two-sports prospects.

“The day of taking, say, (former Florida State QB) Chris Weinke in the (second) round and paying him first-round money, those days are kind of gone because of the way draft is situated,” Fuson said of a 2001 NFL draftee taken in the fourth round.

For the Padres, there is some good news here, if one takes a quirky view.

Under General Manager A.J. Preller, where they’ve been most aggressive at acquiring talent is a realm where not even the $14-billion NFL industry is a factor for players. At least, not yet.